Using their newly acquired Carpet of Flying to cross the sea to the Isle of Horus, the Shimring Questors, having completed three Divine Tasks in three different planes, met with the Guardian of Horus, the Prime Solar of the Droomalith, Divinia Scent.Her awesome beauty radiated forth as she descended from the Heavens to speak to the wary adventurers.

Telling of how the group had now to place the Heart of the Dracolich within the Sacred Oval of Henge, releasing the power of the Dracolich, and activating a planar wobble that would cojoin the plane of Earth with Shimring, the Solar now outlined the Droomalith’s plan of using the Mighty Chains of Gond to capture the Earthgod, Set, using the Timestop spell within the Artifact of Gond. The angel then wished the group good luck and ascended to her vantage point, where she and the other Divine Guests of the Droomalith could watch the party’s final mission.

The Sacred Oval of Henge

The group travelled eastwards over the island as black clouds loomed on the horizon. Easily finding the Sacred Circle, a large area with massive stone fingers stretching into the sky like a burst rib cage, the group waited outside while the intrepid warforged artificer, Forge, flew over the and lowered the Heart of the Dracolich into the required position in the centre of the oval.

As soon as this was done, time dramatically accelerated. The group saw a regal ship approaching up the nearby river. Inside it stood a mighty human figure with an ass-head – Set! But as this happened, a loud sucking sound emanated from the ground and the Heart of the Dracolich disappeared. Within milliseconds, the dark clouds in the east raced overhead and a mighty storm enveloped the land, preventing flying and restricting movement, sound and vision. The Questors, who had been hovering in the air by use of Pelius’s Air Walk now settled on the ground and waited in anticipation. They had given the Chains of Gond to Aibron Torromson, Champion of Greyhawk, and it would be up to him to invoke the power of the CHAINS and make the first move in capturing the Evil Earth God, Set.

The Coming of Set

Set walked alone from out of the storm heading towards the Oval of Henge but as soon as he saw the Questors he knew something was amiss and cried out in a mighty voice: “Anubis!” With Aibron not being quick enough to prevent him, Set summoned a Golothoma and ran back into the blinding weather towards his ship.

But Aibron had been Hasted, and followed the path of the deity. Catching up to him, the fighter assailed the God with all his might. Using the Chains of Gond, he attempted to capture Set with the three chains of Bronze, Silver and Gold. But he was successful only with one chain – the Bronze, allowing Set a powerful attack against him. In a blizzard of blows, that only Baris the Black was able to witness, mighty Aibron died.

Now the rest of the party mobilised, although the wild winds and rain greatly restricted all their attempts. Forge tried to hold the Golothoma with Evard’s Black Tentacles and Pelius was able to Dismiss the creature, but Baris, who was now close to the God and the prostrate form of the Fighter of Greyhawk, saw that Set had brought another Golothoma into being. It attacked Baris but he evaded it and made a tactical retreat. Again, Forge conjured Tentalces and again the Radiant Servant of Pelor Dismissed the creature with his Divine Magic. All the while the Duskblade, Talia Karmylis, and Faren the bard were moving closer, struggling against the weather, the sounds of Faren’s inspiring music fighting against the howling noise of the wind.

The Summoning of Anubis

As the Silver Chain of Gond wrapped itself around the Earthgod he cried out again: “Anubis!” And Anubis came. The Divine Power of the raging God’s plea brought forth an aspect of his servant, Anubis – taking form from the masthead of the ship. While the mummy servants of Set, led by two Mummy Lords, had been moving out of the ship to attack the players, the wise Anubis had been preparing himself with powerful spells. He now broke away from the ship and stood in front of his master, even as his minions started to attack.

Brave Talia charged in straightaway but was shocked to find that she could not enter into melee due to some unseen force that prevented her from reaching the Divine Being. Luckily, she was able to deduce the Antilife Sphere and warn Baris before he also made the same mistake. Instead, Baris opted to strike one of the Mummy Lords, but Anubis Held him with a powerfully Heightened spell and the Invisible Blade of Olidammara was frozen. An angry Mummy Lord used the opportunity to make a Coup de Grace and Baris became the second Shimring Questor to fall.

Brave Faren used his Dimension Door power to join and aid Talia but Anubis let out an horrendous Wail of the Banshee and Faren succumbed. Pelius, who had been concentrating his efforts on the undead creatures, amazed that his TURNING was not destroying the mummies, but merely cowing them, decided to change his tactics. With a burst of Divine Energy, he enacted an explosion of Life Energy that damaged almost all of the mummies that now surrounded them. After a second such burst, most of the undead were now destroyed and the remaining party members, Forge, Pelius and Talia were able to concentrate their efforts on Anubis. But a last dying Confusion spell cast by a Mummy Lord, left Talia babbling incoherently. For the remainder of the battle, she ran away, ran back, blathered about, but was unable to contribute positively to the fight.

The Battle with Anubis

At last Pelius was able to cast a Greater Dispel Magic on Anubis, robbing him of much of his protection. Terrible damage was inflicted by Forge, but the Aspect Healed himself and mocked the two adventurers. However, as the Golden Chain of Gond wrapped around Set, a powerful blue sphere enveloped him and with a huge sucking sound, the entire storm up above was drained into the centre of the Sacred Oval of Henge and all became clear. It was now Anubis versus Forge and Pelius. But high in the sky, a new shape approached.

The taunts and banter between Anubis and his two remaining adversaries will forever be remembered in Shimring and beyond. The two mortals tried to overcome the god with their magic but failed each time. All the while, the shape in the sky came closer, hurtling towards the Isle of Horus, now apparently a huge vessel of some kind. Ignoring this development, Anubis took out his mace and chased after Pelius, who now flew into the sanctity of the Sacred Circle, trying his best to avoid melee with the angry God.

Anubis flew past Forge in fury towards Pelius but before he could take any action, the awesome voice of Ra called out from the vessel which had now landed next to Set. “Anubis, stand down!” Simultaneously, six solars exited the Flying Godship of Sunhillow and took the captured Set within their divine vessel. Anubis also was commanded to return to this ship and he could not disobey.

The Arrival of Ra

As the Solar Host prepared the Divine Vessel, Ra commanded: “All Rise!” with such power that all fallen or stricken adventurers were resurrected and now stood before him as he floated on a bright disk of solar energy!

“You have honoured yourselves and your worlds and you are deserving of my eternal gratitude. By your efforts, the incontrollable SET has been removed from the Planet Earth so that the Droomalith’s great experiment may be progressed. We Gods have agreed to leave that world and in its place Gond will bequeath SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE. Spiritual guidelines will be offered by a series of Divine Prophets – Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed…and there may be others. But we Gods will leave.”

“You are all highly honoured, and as reward I grant you each a wish. Not only that! You will be transported to whichever world you wish, with 100 000 GP credit in whichever place you choose. The Droomalith, who now sleeps peacefully once more, having overcome the breaking free of the Dracolich, essence of chaos, has ordered that each of you is to receive a free daily Commune spell from your own god every day for the rest of your life. The blessings of the Droomalith be upon you!”

With that, the God Ra bowed to the Questors, entered his ship Sunhillow, and flew into the skies. The choices of the Questors may be discovered later and what they did after leaving Shimring might be recounted in other tales, but all participants were then moved safely to the places they chose to be and the Isle of Horus in the fabled land of Shimring settled once again into slumber until the next mighty quest!